Foreigners and Koreans in traditional clothing play yut, a traditional Korean board game, as they celebrate Chuseok. The holiday is meant to be a joyous reunion of family members and relatives, but it also harbors many risks of a rage-fuelled mental illness called "hwa byung."/ Korea Times file

By Ko Dong-hwan

"Hwa byung," a uniquely Korean cultural syndrome that translates roughly as "rage virus" affects more than 10,000 people each year, especially during or after Chuseok, the Thanksgiving holiday season.

With this year's extended holiday of almost 10 days now over, the number of people stricken with the heart-wrenching mental illness is expected to soar.

Last year, among more than 13,200 people diagnosed with the illness at Oriental medicine clinics, more than 4,000 cases came after the holiday season throughout September and October, according to the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service.

Hwa byung, with "hwa" meaning fire and "byung" illness, affects people who no longer can endure emotional pressure, usually anger, in situations they perceive as unfair.

Hwa byung is listed in the fourth edition criteria of the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV)." Wikipedia lists it as "Korean somatization disorder."

The illness often strikes during the holiday season when family members and relatives get together. The occasion might appear joyous from the outside, but it is nerve-wracking and stressful to many who suffer emotionally in various situations.

Women in patriarchal family settings are silently forced to cook holiday food and wash dishes for many people. Relatives who have not seen each other for some time make provocative comments out of misunderstandings, resulting in arguments. Young adults who are unemployed or unmarried get disturbing criticism from elders. All these scenarios and more build up psychological tension.

"Hwa byung often occurs out of family disputes," said Prof. Lee Hae-guk from the College of Medicine at the Catholic University of Korea.

"To resolve the tension, family members should go for a casual outing and have conversations about their emotional situations."

Hwa byung is more common among women than men during the holiday season, mostly because of Korea's deep-rooted patriarchal system that takes for granted women's labor in the kitchen and elsewhere to serve men and other elderly members. Among last year's haw byung patients, there were four times as many women (10,697) than men.

Actress Hwang Eun-jeong, 37, said, "I stayed at my mother-in-law's home for two days every Thanksgiving holiday, waking up at 3 a.m. to prepare food for the family reunion.

"I had to keep making different dishes for men who were busy chatting and drinking. I was delirious and confused as to whether I was married or hired at a restaurant."

Hwang's story is shared by millions of Korean women with conservative husbands who are unwilling to understand their wives' agony.

Some men offer the excuse that it is their "role" to brag about their wives'cooking skills and how they make the gathering more joyous. But such self-justification often only stokes spousal disputes, putting more women under extreme pressure to the point of hwa byung and/or even divorce.

Each year on average, the divorce rate increases by 11 percent during the month of Chuseok, and by almost 40 percent following the New Year's holiday season in January to February ― another huge family reunion occasion.

A lawyer on a TV Chosun talk show observed, "How hard it must be for women to go through the holidays that they want a divorce?"